5. Inventing the samurai

This chapter argues that the samurai were “invented” in the Tokugawa period as a strictly defined group with a unique identity created through popular culture and codified social cultural practices. Commoners and samurai alike consumed, and participated in, warrior-related activities. People read warrior histories, military science manuals, were influenced by warrior theatre, like the 47 ronin story, and the value therein. It also describes how low-ranking warriors became more political, their education increasing connected to notions of warrior legitimacy and the relationship between warriors and the imperial institution. In so doing, the chapter, chronologically, leads readers to the collapse of the last warrior regime during the Meiji Restoration and the Boshin War.

1. Becoming those who served

This chapter defines what is meant by “warrior” in early Japanese history, describes the different possible origins of the warrior class, and the interaction between elite warrior-nobles and non-warrior nobility. In this early period, from prehistory to the ninth century, there was no well-defined warrior class or status group. Warriors across Japan did not think of themselves as belonging to a single group, nor did they have much political power except for the warrior-noble elite, like the Taira and Minamoto clans.

3. War and culture

Warrior combat and culture are the highlights of this chapter. It details early warrior weapons, armour, and castles, describes how combat changed over time from smaller skirmishes to large-scale battles, and ends with a discussion of the “three conquerors” who brought an end to the Warring States Period. The chapter goes beyond the violence of warrior life. The second half of the chapter illustrates the increased salience of noble culture in daily elite warrior life during a time when a new shogunate, the Muromachi Shogunate, replaced the Kamakura shogunate. Led by the Ashikaga shoguns, this new regime was located in Kyoto, the font of noble culture. Thus, alongside violence, this chapter describes growing warrior “values” and their participation in traditional Japanese arts such as the tea ceremony.

4. Warriors in an age of peace

This chapter covers the Tokugawa period, a time of relative peace, when historians know more about the rank-and-file samurai. It begins by describing how Tokugawa Ieyasu and his descendants created the strongest and longest lasting warrior regime, the Tokugawa Shogunate. After describing the political authority at the top, the chapter details the life of daimyo lords, their interaction with samurai, and the curtailing of daimyo interaction with Western countries. Then the chapter covers the average samurai life cycle from childhood, education, and marriage, to concerns about job and free time, and retirement.

2. Early warrior authority

This chapter describes the creation of warriors as an early status group. Minamoto Yoritomo won the Gempei War, an event that allowed him to create his own mini government in Kamakura, later referred to as the Kamakura shogunate. The chapter describes how some warriors gravitated to Kamakura, joined Yoritomo’s bureaucracy, and interacted with each other and the non-warrior nobles in Kyoto. It also highlights the important role of women in the formation of early warrior authority. Yoritomo died early on during this Kamakura Period (1185-1333) and several warrior families, along with their noble allies, struggled to dominate the warrior regime. The Hōjō emerged victorious and had to fight against the invading Mongols. In so doing, the Hōjō begin to dominate warriors throughout Japan. This chapter also introduces several sources of warrior “law” and conduct that show the influence of non-warrior elite culture on warrior culture and behaviour.

Introduction

This introduction lays out the narrative structure of the book, discuses the presence of samurai in popular culture, and covers some of the basic myths about the samurai.